A federal judge has sentenced Kevin Trudeau to ten years in prison for fudging the truth about his weight-loss book.

KSHB

Kevin Trudeau left the Chicago Metropolitan Correction Center after spending a day behind bars in September.

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CHICAGO, Ill. - A federal judge sentenced infamous infomercial king Kevin Trudeau to 10 years in prison for repeatedly defying court orders and failing to pay an enormous $37 million fine.

On Monday inside a Chicago federal courtroom, Judge Ronald Guzman imposed the sentence on Trudeau, who had been convicted of criminal contempt last November. That trial focused on the TV pitchman’s misleading infomercials about his best-selling book, “The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About.”

The $37 million judgment is tied to a corresponding civil case brought by the Federal Trade Commission, which successfully argued in 2010 that Trudeau owes consumers repayment for the deceptive sales pitch of the book.

However, prosecutors have provided mountains of evidence that Trudeau has not paid a dime of the fine while continuing to live a lavish lifestyle . In the three years after the civil judgment, Trudeau racked up more than $3 million in credit card charges on airfare, hotels, expensive foods, gym memberships and trips to the salon, according to court filings.

“Defendant is an unrepentant, untiring, and uncontrollable huckster who has defrauded the unsuspecting for 30 years,” read a sentencing memo filed on March 10. “Defendant preys upon the sick who want to be made healthy, the poor who want to become rich, and the insecure who want to feel better about themselves.”

Trudeau has been in jail since November because the judge presiding over the civil case, Robert Gettleman, still doesn’t believe the TV pitchman is being forthcoming about his elaborate web of assets and offshore accounts.

Last July, Gettleman found Trudeau in contempt for failing to pay the $37 million fine and ordered all his companies and bank accounts transferred to a court-appointed receiver.

One of those companies was the focus of a 41 Action News undercover investigation in November 2012. The investigative report examined the money-making claims and exhorbitant fees paid by members of the Global Information Network (commonly referred to by the acronym GIN).

Trudeau claimed he had no ownership of GIN, but the FTC argued the secret global club was really just another way the TV pitchman was trying to shield assets from the government’s reach.

Since taking control of GIN, the receiver has discontinued programs and fired employees. Membership has also plummeted. The receiver is currently trying to negotiate a sale of GIN to an interested buyer.

“Being incarcerated under these circumstances has been the most life changing experience in my life,” Trudeau wrote. “It has been devastating to me, my wife, and my parents. Between the civil and criminal cases, and the receiver, we have been wiped out financially, effectively homeless, and both my wife and parents have had major health breakdowns.”

It was perhaps a strange request, considering Gettleman found Trudeau in civil contempt six different times over the course of the lengthy court battle.

It will now be up to Gettleman to decide if he wants to allow Trudeau to begin serving his federal prison sentence, or keep him locked up indefinitely for civil contempt at a Chicago jail.